Media buyers say finding safe places to run video ads against is less of a concern today with the influx of professional video onto the Web on properties like Hulu. Havas Digital's Adam Kasper said finding the right context and audience for online video advertising has become a bigger focus in the last few years as more high-quality content appears hits the Web. Starcom's Jonathan Hsia, agreed, noting clients are very comfortable placing ads on Hulu, even though the audience targeting isn't as refined as on other online buys. The safe environment and reach makes it worthwhile. Hsia also …

Satellite TV operator DirecTV and cable TV ad rep firm NCC Media just announced a deal that will provide "one-stop access to locally place ads on a wide selection of networks" received by DirecTV's subscribers. The companies claim that the deal is the first to bring DirecTV's inventory to the spot advertising market, and offering marketers the ability to serve addressable ads. The ads, stored within DVR enabled set-top boxes, will be inserted into local breaks across multiple cable networks. The companies said the system is being tested now, and will be "operational" in the second half of 2011.

Too many brands and not enough focus on the consumer. That's why Nielsen Company either streamlined or sold off a $1 billion dollars worth of business – including many business trade magazines, this according to David Calhoun, chief executive officer for The Nielsen Company. For the Nielsen annual conference, social media and other efforts need analyzed in better ways. "Everything has to start with a holistic consumer," says Calhoun. But there was a warning. "I don't want anyone to think we have cracked the code."

According to Havas Digital's Adam Kasper, it's because there isn't any "scarcity" of inventory in the online marketplace, and because online prices are much more "dynamic" and harder to predict online than on television. "There's certain pockets of inventory that clients need," Kasper said during the media buyers' "Reality Check" panel at OMMA Video this morning. "A financial client might need the ownership button on Yahoo Finance," he said, for example. "So there are areas where certain advertisers should be buying upfront, but in terms of overall impressions, there is not a lack of scarcity in the marketplace." …

In an important sign of support from Madison Avenue, Arbitron just announced that WPP's GroupM unit has signed a multi-year contract for Arbitron's portable people meter and diary radio ratings services across all the markets they measure. "Our clients need high quality measurement tools to guide their media buying strategies and help track the return on their investments," Lyle Schwartz, managing partner-director of implementation research & marketplace analysis at GroupM stated.

Interpublic's Initiative unit has named former Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau PR guy Chris Jones as is vice president-director of communications, filling the job that Tom Siebert left some time ago. Jones, who reports to Initiative North America President Tim Spengler, was recently was a consultant for Hispanic TV network Univision. Siebert, by the way, is now communications chief at HUGE, the hot digital shop in Brooklyn that is partly owned by Interpublic.

Well, that's what I'm calling it anyway. It is the opening keynote presentation by Tim Hanlon, the new partner at "marketing capital" firm Catalyst SF, former digital media guru at Publicis, and of course, the guy who coined the concept of "TV 2.0." "I would argue that we are already in the midst of the era I would call post-digital," Hanlon said, noting the difference between the current media landscape, and the one in which he originally coined the 2.0 concept. What does this mean for the future of TV/online video? Well, for one thing, Hanlon believes it's …

IBM Tuesday reported it has entered into an agreement to acquire analytics software company Coremetrics, a privately held company based in San Mateo, Calif. The move will expand Big Blue's move into the advertising industry and cloud-based services to help companies gain real-time insight into how consumers consume social media. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

I didn't catch the name of the plucky gal from Yahoo who is doing the pre-opening "Sponsor Breakfast" at OMMA Video in New York this morning, but she's pretty keen on the ability of online video to "scale" for advertisers. In fact, she rattled off a few stats about the rapidly emerging market – like the fact that two-thirds of Americans, or about 146.6 million persons – are now actively engaging in online video content. "It's taking over where TV is," she boasted, citing some examples of some big online video hits like Will Ferrell's Funny Or Die video …

Ah, June, the month when so many minds turn to matrimony: Tiffany says it is launching a new app for iPhones to make finding the perfect engagement ring easier. It includes a ring-sizing feature, which it claims is the first of its kind from a jeweler. Users place one of their own rings on the screen, and align it with the correct circle in the guide. Users can also browse the famous collection by shape, setting, metal or design, and rings can be viewed with diamonds of up to six different carat sizes. It also allows users to zoom in …